On the surface the device itself seems reasonably well-equipped, containing the kind of high-end hardware you'd find on a high-end Android phone. The phone packs a 1 GHz processor (doubling the original Pre's processor which was underclocked to 500 MHz). The camera is bumped from 3 MP to 5 MP. Memory holds steady at 512 MB -- the same as the Pre Plus. And the Flash storage -- 16 GB -- is also identical to the Pre Plus'.

The biggest disappointment is the screen. The Pre 2 still packs the same 3.1-inch 320x480 HVGA display as its predecessor, at a time when Android and Apple have graduated to higher resolutions. Other potential downside is the lack of microSD support and the lack of support for the latest/fastest 802.11n wireless standard.

If this was Hewlett-Packard's grand scheme to use its recent acquisition Palm to make a splash on the smart phone market, something seems to be missing.

Compare Palm's launch today with Microsoft's launch of Windows Phone 7 next month and you'll realize that Palm is at a distinct disadvantage. Palm only has one new handset -- Microsoft has nine (as does Android, for that matter). Palm supports apps (including Angry Birds and Oprah Mobile!), Skype, Bluetooth, and VPN, but Microsoft is expected to support these things as well (and Android already does).

One of the only advantages that Palm holds over Microsoft is that webOS 2.0, features a refined version of true multitasking, which is available for both third party and built-in apps. Windows Phone 7 is expected to only support multitasking for built-in apps, not for third party apps. Then again, the iOS and Android platforms already support true multitasking, so Palm is hardly in a league of its own here.

The success or failure of the Pre 2 ultimately matters little to HP, other than perhaps as a matter of pride (it's chief rival Dell is designing/launching multiple upcoming Android and Windows Phone 7 smart phones). HP can afford to sustain Palm even if the experiment isn't working out, in interest of one day trying to conquer the phone market.

But in the face of a fast-advancing smart phone market, HP needs to do something at some point if it ever wants to get ahead -- more handsets -- better hardware than its competitors -- some decisive advantage. That something is not the Palm Pre 2 -- a single smart phone with a tiny, low-resolution screen and lack of brand recognition.

But HP seems determined to go its own way and will launch the device into the packed market anyways. The Pre 2 will launch Friday in France and in "coming months" in the United States and Canada.

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Yeah. We've heard all that now for too long. Pre was out of the game two weeks after it's first launch and never walked back out onto the field.

The relevance of the article is that this is the first phone release after the grand HP acquisition and the market was expecting something to put Pre and Palm back into competition. This phone might have had a chance as the original Pre.

That being said WebOs is a great device OS and I personally look forward to the tablets that may have it. But today WebOS is going to need some major application support to even have a chance to be the bat boy.